This blog will follow my Slimming World journey as I lose weight for my wedding. I hope to include my thoughts, feelings, progress and recipes.

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

RECIPE - The Smash Pizza

I'd heard a few of the lovely Slimming World ladies on Twitter talking about this, so this isn't my recipe but I felt it could still be useful to put it on here for anyone who doesn't know it, and also to note my mistakes from my first attempt!

I was very sceptical about this, given that I absolutely hate Smash. I think it tastes horrible, and smells just as bad. However, I also love pizza, and really miss having it on the diet. I decided to give it a go, and I was very surprised at how good it was. As crazy as it sounds, you don't get the same Smash taste, and although its not the same as a pizza, it's close enough to satsify a craving. If you count the cheese as a healthy extra, its also syn free.

I've now made it twice, and the first time was a bit of a disaster. I'd used a normal baking tray, sprayed with fry light and the base stuck - I had to scrape it off in bits with a knife. Some lovely people on Twitter suggested that I try using a pizza tray, and also make the dough with less water - I did both of these things today and had no problems at all. It came off the tray easily, and felt more like a proper pizza base.

Mix the smash, herbs and garlic with boiling water. Add the water a few drops at a time, and mix until you have a dough. Be really careful not to make it too watery - this makes it sticky, which was my first problem

Use your hands to flatten the smash mixture onto the pizza tray - try and get it as thin as possible without it falling apart

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until crispy on one side. Turn over then bake on the other side for 5 minutes

Just found out that this ISNT syn free - This is what my slimming world rep said to me:

Using free food (like smash) in a way it was not intended to be used, upsets the balance of Food Optimising. Free foods are low in calories for their weight, so they fill you up and satisfy your appetite. Changing the way they were originally were meant to be used is an easy way of adding a lot more calories without realising, in addition to all your main meals and on top of your syns.

Ive been having smash pizza's as well, not happy to find that these are not syn free but still loosing weight eating them.. doesn't make sense but thought I'd share!

you have been sold a load of tripe on that.food is either syn free or not. smash is syn free if you spoon eat it, make it normally or have it as part of a meal.anyone who tells you otherwise is only going to be working against your progress.

Alice is right. Just as lasagne sheet crisps and cous cous cakes are not syn free this pizza recipe is not syn free either. Its called a 'tweak'- using food in a different way can lead to over eating or adding calories. I got this information from the Slimming World website. Anyway... still less syns than the real thing so ENJOY

It really is about thinking about how much you'd eat it it was on your plate in another way- as in, what your normal portion would be. If you use more than that- then it'd be a tweak as that's what makes a tweak a 'tweak'.

So if you're using smash as a pizza base- just use the amount you'd use for a normal meal portion and no more. You should be fine then.